Nurjahan Begum, of the viral plea-for-food video, is no more

Nurjahan Begum, the wife of elderly Saju Sheikh of Sherpur, who came into discussion after a plea for food spread on social media, is no more. After being bedridden for a long time, she breathed her last at her own home at around 12:30 pm on Sunday.

Her burial was completed at the family graveyard at around 5 pm the same day. Local UP member Elias Mia confirmed Nurjahan Begum's death.

Elias Mia said Nurjahan Begum had been lying in bed in a sick condition for a long time. She died on Sunday afternoon.

Family sources said Nurjahan Begum lost her ability to move after she fell and broke a hip bone about six years ago. Because of a financial crisis, it was not possible to continue the treatment she needed.

While looking after his sick wife, 80-year-old Saju Sheikh himself fell into extreme hardship. The couple struggled simply to manage the cost of their food, medicine and daily necessities.

In a video that recently spread on social media, Saju Sheikh was seen holding his wife and pleading, 'Allah, give me food; I am suffering greatly with my wife.' That helpless appeal touched people's hearts.

As the video spread quickly, various individuals, social organisations and the administration inquired after them. Humanitarian assistance was also delivered to them.

Saju Sheikh and Nurjahan Begum are said to have spent about 65 years together as a couple. Through poverty, old age, illness and many other adversities across that long married life, they stood by each other.

Bent with age and ill himself, Saju Sheikh still nursed his bedridden wife until her final day — and it was that picture which reached many people through the video.

Family members said the couple have three sons and three daughters. But the children, too, are financially insolvent. Their son Nur Islam, a day labourer who also pulls a pushcart, looked after his parents as best he could.

But Nur Islam has to struggle hard just to meet the expenses of his own family. As a result, it was not possible for him to bear the full responsibility for the elderly couple's treatment and maintenance.

With Nurjahan Begum's death, Saju Sheikh has been left alone, having lost the life partner of more than six decades. Having lost the wife for whose survival, and for a couple of handfuls of food, he once pleaded, the elderly man now faces still greater uncertainty.

After her death, the couple's story has again raised the question of how help reaches those whose suffering is never caught on camera, even though assistance did arrive once a video went viral — but for now, alongside the grief in that Sherpur home, what remains is the uncertainty of Saju Sheikh's solitary life.